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How very unhealthy to define oneself and others through what one has read. This is not because the legend that each person builds up aboput one's life is not redicible to the written words. Ah, no. It is because of the tediuous self-celebration in verse of one's secular pseudo-tragedy, one's narcisistic ego, aged and yet eager to find in the water of poetry a reflection of its own supposed past glory. A glory merely connected to a chronologic order. I find repellent the old untamable religion of the poets who go for the integrity of the speech as though it was possible to be consoled by one's defeats merely by adding more words to its history. Have no fear of it. There is consolation. All sins starts with pride - says Ecclesiasticus - with the unbalanced love of own importance. You poets, get off this throne. It belongs to the sick people and the dispossessed. (Yours Sincerely: Doctor Professor Vito Scogliamiglio, called "The Priest" (O' Prete) University Hospital Saint Jerome of the Leprouses Naples (posted by Prof.Dott. Vito Scogliamigklio's Secretary: Clitenenstra Giordan) On Fri, 13 Apr 2001 12:06:02 -0000, Helen Hagemann <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Fear as friend or foe > >Fear as ‘friend’ is a good subject of poetry, a handy motif, or an emotive >experience. Fear as ‘foe’ in poetry - writer’s block, fear of failure, and >fear of not being read or heard. Most writers of poetry, however love the >art, love language, the force of the word, pushing boundaries, finding >oneself - not just “look what has happened to me, but look what has happened >to you and I.” As Gertrude Stein said, “I write for myself and strangers.” >You write about the way someone once walked across your heart/and your >blood’s not red/but green/and you can’t feel the weight of your hand/they’re >cupped and thin/you’re yellow and smiling in blue mirrored thoughts/you’ll >wait for his call/ the cut of his hair/swirling in silence/you choose a red >dress/remember the kiss/the wet of his lips /a thump on the brick/that >terrible bell/the yellow of fear/the woman next door. >Gertrude Stein was an iconoclast and first of the post-modernists. The >playful, subversive nature of her poetry like 'Tender Buttons' abandoned the >strictures of punctuation. She kept language in a constant state of flux. >Writers who choose to be the innovative artist, can take heart by Gertrude >Stein’s example as a woman who wrote poetry without fear of failure. So, it >must follow that fearlessness empowers and in having no fear one can >progress in art, move forward without censorship, restriction, subjugation >of voice, and confinement of old traditions. To go in fear of rejection also >empowers. The rejection slip is the marathon you have to run. The training >ground for the pen. Its movement improves/disproves the standards set by >others. The hard workers will get the banquet; the lazy will get the crumbs. >No hierarchical powers like editors or publishers will dampen passion, >commitment, love for the art and the joy and energy that comes with writing. >Australian author, Robert Dessaix (Night Letters) once said at a Bussleton >Writers Festival, ‘With writing, if you’re enjoying yourself that is all >that matters and success will follow.’ > >Helen Hagemann © 2001 > > > >_________________________________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.